United States · Ohio · Cincinnati
CUF, Cincinnati — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Hillside streets climb toward the WLWT TV Tower in CUF, the Cincinnati neighborhood of Clifton Heights, University Heights, and Fairview.
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Where to stay in CUF
How the choice of base plays out on the ground.
CUF puts most of its beds on the University Heights side, along Straight Street, within a walk of the University of Cincinnati. Clifton Heights, east of Ravine Street, is the busier half: West McMillan Street runs to counters, bars, and student flats rather than lobbies. Fairview keeps to houses and hillside steps.
Choose Clifton Heights if you want the campus edge at the end of the block, and Downtown Cincinnati, roughly two miles south, when a full slate of hotel desks matters more.
Find hotels in CUF
Direct booking searches for these neighbourhoods.
Clifton Heights
Clifton Heights sits directly across from the University of Cincinnati, and West McMillan Street carries the food and late trade. Few places to stay nearby — book ahead.Find hotels in Clifton Heightsa quiet room still within a walk of the lecture hallsUniversity Heights
University Heights lies north of Straight Street, where the few hotel rooms in the neighborhood sit near Hebrew Union College.Find hotels in University Heightsvisitors who want the main hotel supply and the riverfrontDowntown Cincinnati
Downtown Cincinnati holds the bulk of the city's hotel desks, roughly two miles south of West McMillan Street.Find hotels in Downtown CincinnatiHotel links are affiliate links: booking through them may earn us a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never affects how places are ranked. How this works
Things to do in and around Cincinnati
Ranked by global recognition; descriptions from Wikidata (CC0).
Museums & Galleries
3- Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal Heritage
- Cincinnati History Museum
- American Classical Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Churches & Religious Sites
6- Old St. Mary's Church Heritage
- St. George Parish and Newman Center Heritage
- First Unitarian Church Heritage
- Calvary Episcopal Church Heritage
- Apostolic Bethlehem Temple Church Heritage
Show 1 more →
- First Universalist Church Heritage
Stadiums & Sports
1- Bank Street Grounds
Parks & Gardens
1- Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden
Landmarks & Notable Places
8- George B. Cox House Heritage
- George Hunt Pendleton House Heritage
- Gorham A. Worth House Heritage
- Bernard Ratterman House Heritage
- Moses Goldsmith Building Heritage
Show 3 more →
- Freund-Heintz House Heritage
- George Hatch House Heritage
- S. Gale and Agnes P. Lowrie House Heritage
worth knowingacross 5 categories in and around Cincinnati
About CUF
What are the main landmarks in CUF?
CUF gathers its landmarks on two park hilltops and along West McMillan Street. Bellevue Hill Park opens off Ohio Avenue, where a 1955 pavilion spreads a concrete canopy on cantilevers above the old ground of the Bellevue House. From its Daniel J. Ransohoff Overlook the slope falls to Downtown Cincinnati.
Fairview Park holds the western brow. The WLWT TV Tower, a steel lattice raised in 1978, rises from Chickasaw Street. Police Station No. 7, Romanesque brick by Samuel Hannaford and Sons, stands where West McMillan Street meets Ravine Street.
What is the history of CUF?
CUF grew as three hilltop settlements the valley below could reach only by cable. The Bellevue Incline and the Fairview Incline hauled streetcars up the slope, two of the four inclines that carried Cincinnati's cars onto its hills. The Bellevue House stood at the head of the first, and Bellevue Hill Park took its ground in 1955.
Fairview had its own German community. It founded the Fairview German Language School in 1888; the school left for Clifton in 2008. Hughes High School moved into its Clifton Heights building in 1906, named for Thomas Hughes, an English shoemaker whose will left his property to schooling for poor children.
Where is CUF?
CUF wraps the University of Cincinnati on its south and west, bounded by Clifton to the north, Mount Auburn to the east, and Over-the-Rhine and Camp Washington below.
Common questions
What is the best area to stay in CUF?
Clifton Heights: the campus edge, with West McMillan Street at the door. University Heights: a quiet room still within a walk of the lecture halls. Downtown Cincinnati: visitors who want the main hotel supply and the riverfront.
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Updated October 2026